Literally 3 minutes ago. Pics to follow (I took a few but the close-ups are extremely blurry.

Crappy TIM is 100% confirmed on Haswell! I used the vice method if anyone is wondering, and it was pretty easy actually. I never thought I'd be crazy enough to try, but here we are!The chip did not pop out of the vice and go flying, it just loosened up and then I wiggled it out. As a backup, I had a big ESD bag opened behind the vice to act as a catcher's mit, but it wasn't necessary.

In case anyone is wondering, this is a plain old retail chip ordered from Amazon on Sunday.

One more note: I'd like to give a mad shout out to all those crazy guys who delidded before me, and especially the guys who figured out the vice method.. it was frighteningly easy even for someone as klutzy as me.In the TR forums, a big shout-out to Auxy who has done this to Ivy Bridge too!

I'll update with more photos as I clean it up. For the first go around, I'm just using a very small amount of AS5 as the new TIM, but I may go for that crazy liquid metal stuff in the future (I don't have any on hand now).

Edit: Cleanup is done. I have posted a few post-cleanup photos in the photo post below. My goal was to remove gobs of glue that could affect the spacing of the IHS on the CPU PCB, so you'll see that the PCB is not spotless but that there aren't obviously globs of dried glue left. The top of the CPU has a mirror shine to it after cleaning. Sorry that the photos are not up to TR quality, but at least they give you an idea of the before & after.

Edit: June 7: I got in a replacement motherboard since the first one died after a short. The delidded 4770K is alive & kicking and I'm doing a memtest run. I have a very basal setup right now with just the CPU + stock cooler + RAM + USB boot stick running memtes86 the Arch installer. After the memory checks out, I'll do the full build with the other goodies over the weekend. I have a couple of not too exciting photos posted below. Note that Memtest is convinced that Intel still hasn't made it to a 22nm process

Edit: June 8: The memory checked out last night and I finished the hardware build. So far so good, the CPU at idle + the NZXT cooler gives almost-ambient temperatures (see my updated flickr feed for more pictures).

Edit: June 13: Thanks for all the recommendations about using Coollaboratory Ultra! I have posted updated screenshots of a higher overclock to 4.7GHz with a worst-case mprime torture test temperature of 82C (which was only hit briefly, and mprime was stable for over 2 hours during the test run). I was hitting over 90C(!) at only 4.6GHz with the old setup, so there are some bit improvements with the new TIM!

OK, Pics or it didn't happen right? Here's a few initial ones, I have delidded but I haven't finished the process yet:

EDIT: I've opened up a flickr account just for this crazy project Go check out all the photos here: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjFScMoJJune 7: Posted picture of memtest benchmarking & the very crude initial setup for testing the RAM + CPU. More excitement to follow.

June 8: The hardware build is complete and the system is running OK. See the updated photos at the bottom. Next step is slapping Linux on this bad-boy... what you thought I'd put on Windows 8?

June 13: New screenshots showing different phases of the mprime torture test with the CPU @ 4.7 GHz using the Coollaboratory Ultra TIM.

Last edited by chuckula on Fri Jun 14, 2013 10:53 am, edited 8 times in total.

One thing, I thought it was established that the Intel TIM wasn't actually that bad, it's just the spacing of the IHS to the die was a little off and that gap is why delidded Ivy's are so much cooler than normal delidded chips... Source: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.ph ... tcount=570

One thing, I thought it was established that the Intel TIM wasn't actually that bad, it's just the spacing of the IHS to the die was a little off and that gap is why delidded Ivy's are so much cooler than normal delidded chips... Source: http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.ph ... tcount=570

FWIW I agree that both could be better. As you saw in my photos, there is definitely dried glue that easily adds an extra millimeter or so in the IHS-die spacing. The TIM didn't look too inspired either (at least it wasn't massively gloppy).

Good news bad news: The delid did not kill the cpu but something bad may have happened to my mobo I had a successful boot to bios that recognized my cpu, but upon reboot i heard a small pop (not from the cpu) and smelled ozone. Now it won't start. I think the nzxt liquid cooler pump may be to blame but I'll see if I can salvage the situation or if an rma is in order.

Actually it's simpler than that. You put the IHS (only the the metal ihs edge) the vice with the pcb just above the top plane where it is free to move. Then you place a block of wood (e.g. flat end of a 2x4) flat along one edge of the pcb and give the opposite end of the wood block a firm hammer tap (does not require massive force). The force of the strike loosens the pcb and then you wiggle it free.

chuckula wrote:Actually it's simpler than that. You put the IHS (only the the metal ihs edge) the vice with the pcb just above the top plane where it is free to move. Then you place a block of wood (e.g. flat end of a 2x4) flat along one edge of the pcb and give the opposite end of the wood block a firm hammer tap (does not require massive force). The force of the strike loosens the pcb and then you wiggle it free.

OK, I take it back. That is crazier and more dangerous then a Socket A heatsink install.

Let's indirectly take a hammer to my CPU and hope all of the microscopically-small solder connections to the PCB don't complain at impact. I love this plan [/Venkman] !!!

OK! Looks like I may have killed my mobo when I plugged the pump for my NZXT Kraken into a motherboard header. Some other people have had this issue too... bad news but it basically means the mobo is the issue and my insane delid isn't to blame

A little more on my bootup. I booted successfully the first time, but I had forgotten to plug the pump into the fan header (I had already plugged in the SATA power connector for the pump and the fans are all hooked up separately). I noticed the chip was warming up (the chip never got super-hot, just up to around 60 and I knew the pump wasn't running) and then I realized the fan header needed to be plugged in. I powered down, plugged in the fan header like I was supposed to, and then on the subsequent boot I heard the pop . Hopefully I can RMA the board without too much of a headache.

to close the gap (and fill in any air holes) between the die and the lid, silly. It's there for the same reason you put some on the cap before placing the heat sink.

It's been documented that on Ivy Bridge, at least, there's a small (less than 1mm but still that's huge, relatively speaking) gap between the lid and the die. Lots of TIM has to go in there. By de-lidding you remove that gap as much as possible and get better heat transfer. Cooler temps when it comes to overclocking.

Their TIM is better than adequate when it comes to stock speeds. But when it comes to OC'ing you can get higher without the lid.

Last edited by derFunkenstein on Thu Jun 06, 2013 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.

A thermal bridge between discrete thermal conductors is necessary when you're dealing with the rate of heat production that these chips put out. The heat needs an unimpeded path of travel away from the source. Very small surface imperfections between two thermal conductors are enough to impede heat flow. The thermal interface material is designed to fill in the small gaps so that heat can flow through the entire area of contact.

Chuckula, I read an interesting article, and trying my best to find it again, that they tested all forms of different TIMs, and the intel's ranked up with the best. They posted temps and results, then culprit was not the TIM, but the black epoxy gluing the IHS to the board creates too large of a gap between the IHS and core. They removed all the epoxy and put the IHS back on without touching the TIM, then removed the IHS and tested with high quality TIMs between the IHS and core, and saw equal temps to high quailty TIM, and much lower temps than stock.

ColeLT1 wrote:Chuckula, I read an interesting article, and trying my best to find it again, that they tested all forms of different TIMs, and the intel's ranked up with the best. They posted temps and results, then culprit was not the TIM, but the black epoxy gluing the IHS to the board creates too large of a gap between the IHS and core. They removed all the epoxy and put the IHS back on without touching the TIM, then removed the IHS and tested with high quality TIMs between the IHS and core, and saw equal temps to high quailty TIM, and much lower temps than stock.

Granted, solder would be better than any TIM.

I'd be very interested to give that a read if you locate it! I'm definitely onboard with the theory that it is the glue that introduces a gap between the IHS and the die.. and air gaps are killer no matter what kind of TIM you are using.